Innehållsförteckning för September 2022 från Racecar Engineering

ENDURANCE – PEUGEOT 9X8 Peugeot has embraced the digital world in the development of its Le Mans challenger, the 9X8, and is now in the process of developing its relationship with supplier, Capgemini, in order to improve the digital accuracy of its World Endurance Championship contender. Embracing artificial intelligence to analyse large amounts of data coming from the car is not new, but Peugeot Sport is trying to optimise its strategy on track, problem solve during races, and make efficiency gains off track to find performance advantages in this Balance of Performance category. The relationship with Capgemini and its AI functionality started after the initial design process of the car had been completed. Peugeot Sport created the 9X8 in digital form, comprising 51GB of data and more than 15,000 files.…

Ferrari gave its 2023 World Endurance Championship car its first miles on the Fiorano test track early in July as it prepares for competition starting in March next year. In the same month, Cadillac and Porsche started their joint test session at Sebring with their LMDh contenders. Acura also had its LMDh car on track at Paul Ricard, but withdrew from the Sebring test. The Ferrari is designed and built at Maranello, and observers at the test have commented on the build quality under the skin matching that of Formula 1 standards. There is no word yet on the engine that the car will use, or even the name of the car, but it will compete as a Hybrid and therefore, by regulation, will have to be four-wheel drive. Engineers…

Ferrari has taken a radical new approach to the development of its 296 GT3 by taking full advantage of new regulations that allowed it to optimise the design from concept phase through to final build. Rather than having to present new ideas to an FIA committee for approval, which slows up the process and introduces uncertainty, the new technical regulations that govern the class are written in stone, and that allowed Ferrari’s designers to focus on what they knew to be allowed from the start. That simplified the design process and meant the team was able to aggressively pursue avenues that have helped to produce a better, less expensive car for its customers. The car is based on the hybrid 296 GTB, though the hybrid system has been removed from…

During stable regulations in most open competitions, design, operation and strategy converge as understanding increases. However, IMechE’s Formula Student (FS) is a contest that defies this logic. The technical rules accept various technologies, but the competition itself has been very similar for a long time. Over the years, teams have won the numerous parts of the competition, running diverse technological approaches to realise the FS car. The 2022 Formula Student competition at Silverstone, UK, which took place on 9-10 July, was no different. Following the Covid pandemic, Formula Student UK was back to full strength this year. The 2022 competition sported some new elements, notably the mandatory inclusion of the expanded Lap Time Simulation event, which will encourage teams to develop vehicle dynamics in a virtual environment. Powertrain overview Oxford…

[TOCA] wanted a push-to-pass system that drivers can use at the exit of a corner to try and bring them alongside opponents in the next corner At the end of 2019, a tender was awarded to Cosworth by the TOCA-organised British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) to develop a hybrid system for the series. By the middle of 2020, some testing of the system had begun, but Cosworth first had to understand how to build its system alongside the prescribed turbocharged, inline, four-cylinder ICE. Rob Morrow, now at Delta Cosworth, was initially project leader but handed over the reins in mid-2021 to Richard Woodgate, lead applications engineer at Cosworth, who was put in charge of the hybrid system and integration of it with the Cosworth 12V electronics. Based in Cambridge, UK,…

Formula 1 carries the perpendicular digit because it’s considered the highest level of motor racing, literally numero uno. But it is not the first formula ever to race. That honour goes to a UK championship that has been around continuously, with very few major regulation changes, since 1949: 750 Formula. Run by the organisation that owes the category its name, the 750 Motor Club, 750 Formula (750F for short, never Formula 750) is thriving, with healthy grids and, perhaps more interestingly in these days of spec formulae, a huge variety of cars. In fact, when Racecar attended the first 750 Formula meeting of the 2022 season at Silverstone, it proved impossible to find two identical cars. That’s all thanks to a rulebook that allows for plenty of engineering creativity and…

Last year, the lunatics at Hennessey, a US creator of Lotus-based machines that top 250mph, previewed a concept called ‘Deep Space’. The $3 million electric hypercar is designed to surpass 200mph and, in order to harness the presumably several thousand horsepower electric powertrain, it will feature six wheels. Radical as this concept may seem to some of the younger generation, company CEO, John Hennessey, is not the first to decide four wheels just won’t cut it, and in racing many have added extra wheels in search of performance over the years. Rule makers – ever the spoilsports – clamped down on such antics in the 1980s, but fortunately a plethora of six-wheelers, some well-known, others less so, made it out into the wild before they did so. In the early…

British company, Sentronics, which has been the sole supplier of fuel flow measurement technology to the FIA Formula 1 World Championship since 2018, has been re-selected to continue the role through to the end of the 2025 season. The company provides separate team and encrypted FIA fuel flow meters to make up the dual-sensor package that has been standard since 2020. Team sensor data is also available to F1 power unit manufacturers and fuel suppliers for research and development use. ‘We have significantly evolved our products over the last few years to equip our F1 and other motorsport customers with outstandingly accurate and reliable sensors that perform in the most demanding environments,’ says managing director, Neville Meech. The company also provides its FlowSonic sensors to the FIA World Endurance Championship…